Stelllllllllaaaaaa! Sorry, can't read the name without doing the Streetcar thing. Who is she? Oh, do grow up. This is Stella Jean, a former model and the latest fashion designer to get our whiskers twitching.

What made her get into fashion design? The first time she stepped into a designer's studio as a model, it was "the right place to be, but the wrong way to be there". So she packed in modelling in 2010 and set to work on a collection.

Keep talking. She presented her first collection in July 2011. Since then, there's been interest in her work from some of the world's biggest chicest boutiques. Matches will stock her pieces soon, and Barney's New York is all aflutter. Her designs are pricey, but the high street is awash with similar prints for SS13, so expect to see lots "inspired" by Stella's work this summer.

She says: "Being part of a multiracial family in 1980s Italy shaped me as a person – but it's been neither simple nor painless."